I first began to think more carefully about the idea of the importance of youth whilst reading the political tract of a leader some time ago who, although he had nothing to do with Odinism, had some very sound ideas about the importance of youth and youth culture. When I speak of ‘the youth’, I am referring to those children/young people of all school ages, up to the age of about 18-20.

If the youth of a people are not educated from a young age about the ways of their Folk, and taught to love, celebrate and preserve the Folk customs that have grown and evolved as their Folk evolved, then their and their Folk’s raison d’etre will gradually disappear, and be lost. The old guard can only keep the customs alive for as long as they are physically able, and if there is no young blood willing to learn from the older folk, to receive the banner and continue marching forward proudly, the result will be obvious and tragic. In England we are currently being told in reports by the [often pathetically sensationalist] media that Morris dance leaders believe that within 20 years this great and ancient English tradition will have died from ‘embarrassment’. The old folk will have passed on, and the youth of today are too ‘embarrassed’ (or perhaps better to say, ‘spineless’, resulting from perpetual brainwashing) to step forward to learn one of their nation’s important traditions.

We all appreciate that the youth of today are under relentless bombardment from the media that they are constantly plugged into. They are made to feel that they must conform in every aspect of their lives, or face the consequences of being a social outcast. I believe that this disease stems very much directly from the pulp and gutter-press that their parents buy. The newspapers of today, and the magazines in the shops labelled as “men’s/ women’s lifestyle” magazines, are not only insulting to any man or women who does not either drool over naked plastic ‘women’, or finds excitement in the latest celebrity freak show respectively, but they are poisoning the mind of the young. This is because the children of the household are inevitably going to pick up mum’s/dad’s magazine from the kitchen table, and believe that what they find therein is their ‘culture’, and the topics under ‘discussion’ are what should comprise their interests. They will read about every facet of sex under the sun, discussed casually and with such a blasé, gung-ho attitude that they will begin to wonder, at the age of maybe eleven or twelve, why they aren’t having sex, as everyone else seems to be. The contents of these publications will then lead the youngster quite directly on to the disgusting so-called ‘urban culture’ (if one can grace it with that name) of the cities, which promotes said ‘culture’ with great zeal. We find music and film glorifying misogyny, miscegenation, drug abuse and the wonders of loose living. It is this repugnant filth that has slowly but decisively undermined and waylaid our Folk Culture and Traditions. At its most neutral, this ‘urban culture’ and media simply distract the youth from their birthrights; at their worst, they actively mock and scorn Northern-European culture, making it something to be ashamed of, connecting it to ‘hate crime’ even, and promote miscegenation as ‘cool’, for want of a better word.

The youth should not be sitting around playing games consoles, drinking alco-pops and ‘trying to get laid’ at the age of 13 – they should be out playing in the fields and woods, in the streams and on the hills, building dens and forts, fighting heroic battles and thus, without perhaps knowing it, communing with the God-Forces within and without. This is what I did when I was younger, and I am eternally grateful for my parents allowing me to do so. For in retrospect, I can see that it strongly shaped my love of the outdoors: the trees, the soil, the sun, the rain, the wind and the cold – all those things that make you feel truly alive.

And call me old-fashioned, but children have nothing to do with sex, and therefore by that logic have no business reading about it or looking at photos of it. As the writer of the political tract mentioned at the beginning of this article explained, a high sex-drive among youths is only the result of idleness and unexpended energy (i.e. in today’s world, sitting in front of an Xbox for four or five hours a night – though it may also have a lot to do with the hormones and other rubbish they pump into dairy cattle and meat animals), and that if the youth were engaged often in sport, hiking, war-games, etc, they would naturally be exhausted and afterwards want only to eat and then sleep. Once the youth have matured into capable and honest adults, then is the time for relationships and all the great responsibility that they entail.

And it is surely obvious that learning about and experiencing brotherhood and camaraderie is an integral part of a successful childhood, for fear that the child may grow into an incurably selfish and inconsiderate adult and member of society? Such things cannot be taught but must be learned through natural experience of them, in a natural environment that is the home, the playground, the field and the forest.

So hail to the stalwarts of the Odinic Rite and Acorn Hollow, who are blazing anew the trails of integrity and honour once known well to our Folk. May these good Folk continue to hold aloft the torch of ancestry and heritage even when surrounded and veritably swamped by a degenerate and wayward ‘cosmopolitan’ society.